The medieval tower
The remnant of the bishops' twelfth-century fortress.
Norbert Aepli, Switzerland (User:Noebu) — CC BY 3.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0
Signed here in 1912 between the Ottoman Empire and Italy, it ended their war and saw the Ottomans effectively cede **Tripolitania and Cyrenaica** — that is, Libya — to Italy, beginning the Italian colonial period that lasted until the Second World War. An Arab visitor therefore stands before this building with a different feeling from the ordinary tourist, who sees a handsome hotel on the lake.
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The Château d'Ouchy is a stone building with a square tower standing directly on the lakeshore at the Ouchy quay, and it looks like a medieval castle — the truth is layered: **the tower alone** is original, twelfth-century, the remnant of the fortress of the bishops of Lausanne that guarded the harbour. The building around it was rebuilt in 1893 in neo-Gothic style to become a **hotel**. And a hotel it remains — not a museum, and not a monument you tour inside. But its position and façade make it one of the most photographed buildings in Lausanne, standing at the centre of the Ouchy scene: the quay, the steamboats, the promenade and the palms around it. It carries historical weight too: the **Treaty of Ouchy** was signed in this building in 1912, ending the Italo-Ottoman war and handing Libya to Italy — a pivotal moment in the modern history of the Arab world. Pause a few minutes for the photograph and the commemorative plaque as you walk the quay.
The remnant of the bishops' twelfth-century fortress.
Where Libya passed to Italy after the Ottoman war.
Place du Port 2, 1006 Lausanne